In home aquariums, amazing ahatines are often found, the content and care of which is an interesting and entertaining activity. For many people living in modest apartments, giant silent and unhurried shellfish can replace noisy cats or dogs.
Akhatiny - species
There are a lot of invertebrate creatures, but our heroes among the relatives stand out as the largest body, growing to an impressive length of 30 cm. All kinds of snails are interesting, their differences are manifested in the shape of a shell, body color and tendrils, behavior in the terrarium. There are no cardinal features in the care of exotic pets, the domestic African snails of the ahatina, regardless of subspecies, adapt well to the content in the apartment.
Many types of mollusks differ in the color of the lower part of the shell in the place of attachment to the body, located to the right of the mouth. If you are seriously interested in the ahatina, the maintenance and care of snails, you need to know the color of your original pet's columella. At various individuals it meets pink, white, bluish, take a crimson shade. Columella of adult snails is seen well, but the young mollusk is more difficult to consider, with the help of a cotton swab, gently push aside the mantle.
Akhatin fulica albino
Columella Achatina fulica is always white in color, but the shell and leg of the snail are of different colors. Giant snails Akhatina Fulik get used to captivity pretty well, they are unpretentious in food. The average size of the mollusks is about 14 cm, but often gastropods grow to 20 cm. The color and size of the shell are affected by the quality of food, care and living conditions. Sexually mature creatures that do not participate in reproduction grow larger. These snails of Akhatina have an average life expectancy in aquariums of up to about 6 years.
Ahatina Panther
Adolescents mollusks have a light color, but with age, with normal care, the shell becomes brighter, taking a chic brown or dark hazel shade. Large snails of ahaatin possess a beige foot and a characteristic strip on the trunk. A brown line stretches from the head of the belly to the shell. Columella panther has a bright crimson hue.
These creatures live with a "predatory" name and interesting multi-colored shells up to 10 years. Immaculata var. pantera is unpretentious, growing fast. Humidity loves from 70%, with lowering the level can fall into a hibernation. Incredibly simple in the reproduction of the panther is the ahatina, the maintenance and care of them does not cause difficulties. From the age of 4 months they reach puberty, postponing often up to two hundred eggs.
Ahatina album
In appearance, these gastropods have much in common with their relatives of the species reticulata, they are extremely difficult to distinguish at a young age. The shell is of marble color, but our African snail of ahaatin has an external skeletal formation with a less ribbed texture, a dark, monotonous last curl and a pink tip. The color of columella in achatina albopicta is yellowish or white. Although for our region these are relatively new ahatines, the content and care of this type of cardinal features does not.
Ahatina Kraveni
Ashatina craveni with a shell up to 7 cm in comparison with other relatives look more modest. It is conical, has a smooth surface of beige or yellowish color. Decorate it with solid or intermittent brownish stripes of undulating shape, due to which these snails are often called amateurs zebra. The leg of the creature is decorated with a strip that starts near the horns. African ahatina crveni columella is white or under the primary color of the shell, and apex can differ in color from yellow to beige.
Ashatina craveni has an interesting feature that is rarely found in other gastropods of this species. Akhatiny kraveni maintenance and care require special, without the incubation of eggs, because they belong to viviparous creatures. Smaller mollusks have a 5-7 liter terrarium per individual. They eagerly eat vegetables, fruits, feeding in the form of a grain mixture with calcium, branches with lichen.
Ahatina tiger
Akhatina ahatina tigers are called because of interesting dark strips, their original red-brown or rust-yellow shell coloring reminds a little of the body color of a formidable predator. The leg is found in them, as an effective coal-black, and almost completely light. These gigantic snails of the Akhatina are late in reproduction, sometimes they begin to masonry in 3 years. Our monsters often live up to 10 years, delighting the owners with their silent company.
The original feature of this species is the characteristic tail of the "crocodile" of the form, it can only boast achatina achatina. Calm pets love to sleep in permanent houses or mink. Young people are quick, but growing up, our belly-tigers calm down and look noble. In the terrariums of the ahatina, with the maintenance and care of a qualitative and correct, reach 18-22 cm. The largest is a specimen up to a kilogram in weight with a shell of 275 mm in size, it was found in the natural environment of Sierra Leone.
Ahatina - content at home
Surprisingly, the terrible pests of fields, which in tropical countries can not be exorcised for decades, have become favorites in Europe for connoisseurs of exotics. Here the snails of Akhatina require care and maintenance is special, because they can not survive the cold terrarium without a warm terrarium. Unlike water creatures, mollusks of exclusive expensive equipment for housing are unnecessary. Even small children after simple training can look after a silent and proud pet.
Terrarium for Achatin
To create or acquire a special container for gastropod creatures is unnecessary, they are suitable for a glass aquarium or other convenient reservoir of non-toxic polymers. To the terrarium it is desirable to find a cover, having made in it some ventilating apertures. Akhatina content is liked in transparent houses of horizontal type, the volume of the interior space should exceed 10 liters per large mollusk. To buy small aquariums from saving teenagers is undesirable, very soon you will have to look for a spacious "apartment" and spend money repeatedly.
Ventilation windows should be small, a diameter smaller than the size of the pet, otherwise the ahatines will flee to the outside world. The temperature of the medium in the terrarium is considered optimal within 26 ° -28 °, it is desirable to avoid large fluctuations in the microclimate. The desired mode is supported by means of a heating pad, a thermo cord, heating mats. The capacitance is set far from direct rays, so additional illumination will help to better observe the pets. We remind you that snails like to be active in the evening and the dark period of the day.
Soil for snails ahatin
Often amateurs use coconut substrates supplied in briquettes. They are processed with boiled water, washed, dried and poured into the terrarium. It turns out a good ground, on which the land snails of the ahatina feel themselves perfectly. You can use calcined earth from the garden, create soil from a sand-earth mixture with the addition of peat. The acidity of the resulting soil should correspond to a pH in the range of 5.5-7. It is forbidden to apply substrates for flowers with fertilizers, sawdust, pebbles, sharp stones, sand.
How to care for snails ahaatin?
In addition to the optimal temperature regime, it is desirable for snails to maintain a high humidity of the environment. For this purpose, spray guns are used to spray water inside the terrarium. The care and maintenance in a clean container are valued, therefore it will be necessary to remove the excrement, the remaining food, wash the glass walls with water without chemical preparations.
The life span of a cochlea is 5-9 years, it directly depends on the quality of the conditions of detention. In poor conditions, your pets can get sick, injured, weak. These unique creatures are living organisms that are affected by fungi and parasites, so they need proper care. Closely inspect the pets periodically to not miss the development of infection.
Diseases of domestic snails ahaatin:
- Sluggish behavior of ahatines as a result of prolonged hypothermia.
- Being in direct sunlight can kill a snail.
- Salt or chemical household agents cause burns of the mucous body.
- Injury of the shell and legs as a result of a fall from the aquarium.
- Disease of the shell from lack of calcium or fungal infection.
- The defeat of mold - careful treatment with aerosols for reptiles, washing the body with chamomile broth or smearing the cochlea with propolis.
- Worms in ahatinov - treated with the inclusion of pumpkin seeds in the menu.
- Viral infections - mandatory disinfection of the terrarium.
What do snails of Ahatina eat?
In the question, what to feed the snails of Akhatin , complications do not arise much. You can feed them with cucumbers, carrots, slices of apples, salad, zucchini. Diversity in the diet is welcomed, if the menu is poor, then this affects the rate of growth. It is impossible to use sharp and fried foods, seasoned with salt of the dish, in the care and maintenance of shellfish. Grain mixture with calcium supplements is useful to gastropod creatures, so include shell or chalk in the diet. Protein components they receive when feeding eggs or pieces of chicken meat, used occasionally as an additive.
Akhatiny - reproduction
If you are interested in the reproduction of amazing creatures, you need to learn the basic techniques how to take care of the eggs of snails ahatin and contain young mollusks. Children of childbearing age reach in six months. Self-fertilization is found in them, but for the sake of guarantee it is desirable to settle their gastropods in pairs. From the two hermaphrodites the female becomes the creature with the largest dimensions. It is undesirable to mate ahatin from one masonry, it is better to protect the family from genetic abnormalities.
A medium with a stable temperature of about 28 ° and a thick soil layer of up to 10 cm from a coconut substrate will be suitable for reproduction. Often shellfish lay eggs in the ground, pulling pits, but often they leave them on the surface, so watch out for the humidity. At this time, when nursing, be sure to feed the snails with calcium. Opening of a laying occurs in a month-one and a half after pairing of individuals. Recall, most ahaatin lay eggs, but there are viviparous species (kraveli, andredeliia).